Houston-based midstream operator Targa Resources Partners LP said Thursday indicative proposals to acquire MarkWest Hydrocarbon Inc. and MarkWest Energy Partners have been set aside without any substantive negotiations having been held. Terms of the offer were not released.

According to Targa, the proposals were based on limited information and Denver-based MarkWest did not provide additional current information requested by Targa. The proposals were contingent upon both companies accepting Targa’s offers and, according to Targa, MarkWest Energy Partners indicated it was not for sale and refused to discuss the proposal. MarkWest Hydrocarbon considered the proposal “likely to lead to a superior proposal,” Targa said.

Targa Resources Inc. was formed in 2003 by Warburg Pincus. Targa’s business units are located along the Gulf Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), Midcontinent and Rocky Mountains. Its first major acquisition came in April 2004 when it purchased some midstream gas operations from ConocoPhillips (see Daily GPI, April 2, 2004). In 2005 it purchased Dynegy Midstream Services for $2.35 billion (see Daily GPI, Nov. 1, 2005).

Targa now owns or operates more than 11,300 miles of natural gas gathering and natural gas liquid pipelines. Its gathering systems cover 14,400 square miles, and it has 22 gas processing plants with more than 10,250 MMcf/d of gross processing capacity. Onshore and straddle plant assets access natural gas supplies in the Permian Basin, Fort Worth/Bend Arch Basin, South Louisiana Basin, deepwater and deep shelf GOM.

MarkWest Energy Partners, which is majority owned by MarkWest Hydrocarbon Inc., is one of the largest processors of gas in the Appalachia region. Since 2003 MarkWest has expanded its Southwest unit in Texas and Oklahoma to include 19 gas gathering systems, two processing plants and four lateral gas pipeline systems. MarkWest’s Northeast unit generates cash flow stream from gathering and processing natural gas from long-lived reserves in the Appalachian Basin and from gathering, processing and transporting natural gas and crude oil via its facilities in Michigan.

According to a study released in January by energy research and consulting firm John S. Herold, MarkWest Hydrocarbon led a 400-company peer group last year with a 146.7% total return, driven by rising earnings and a larger share of the enhanced distributions from its midstream subsidiary (see Daily GPI, Jan. 10).

©Copyright 2007Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.